After Joe Stack flew a plane into an IRS building, the media was somewhat hesitant to call him a terrorist. Not because the attack wasn't politically motivated but because he wasn't a Muslim. That odd distinction seems to be manifesting not just in the media but in how the Justice Department goes after suspects involved in politically motivated violence. Marcy Wheeler noted the contradiction in November, contrasting Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a 19-year-old Muslim who was captured in an FBI sting, and George Djura Jakubec, a non-Muslim who had independently amassed “the largest quantity of homemade explosives found in one location in the history of the United States.”
Now, as compared to Mohamud, there may be reasons why they can't or haven't charged Jakubec with use of a WMD. Quite simply, they don't know if Jakubec planned to use this arsenal, and if so, on what. Mind you, they appear to have decided they couldn't construct an elaborate plot to find out because if they did they risked having him blow up southbound I-15 by mistake; they had to arrest him right away because his explosive were such a threat.
Fair enough. But Jason Sigger notes a similar discrepancy between the charges against alleged al-Qaeda wannabe Antonio Martinez and alleged Arkansas Pepsi-can bomber Mark Krause:
Recent updates at TPM show Mark has supporters who say he's not the bomb-making, sociopathic type. That may be so. But although his crime fits the Title 18 definition of a "WMD" and the FBI affidavit was developed by a member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force of Arkansas, he isn't being charged with attempted use of a WMD, as Muslim immigrants in Oregon and New York - who also attempted to build IEDs - are.
Likewise, Siggers points out, the FBI recently arrested Aaron Johnson for allegedly threatening to blow up a St. Louis IRS building but charged him with willfully threatening to destroy a building with an explosive, whereas Martinez and Mohamud were charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. The difference between the two charges is significant, since the former carries a max of 10 years and the latter can get you life. The WMD charge applies to threats as well as attempts, so Johnson could conceivably have been charged that way.
So we're beyond simply exploring the accuracy of headlines at this point. Being a non-Muslim with a vendetta against the IRS seems to be better than being a Muslim busted in a fake sting, at least in terms of how hard the feds are willing to throw the book at you.
